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The bill is a major bipartisan victory for Congress and deals with a personal issue for the president. Biden has said he believes there may be a link between the brain cancer that killed his 46-year-old son Beau Biden and the burn pits Beau was exposed to during his military service.
Until 2010, burn pits were used to burn waste — including trash, ammunition, hazardous materials and chemical compounds — at military bases throughout Iraq and Afghanistan until 2010. , dangerous toxins are released into the air, when exposed, can cause short-term and long-term health conditions, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
“Toxic fumes sprayed into the air and into the lungs of our troops, many of the good, good warriors we sent to war were not the same when they came home. Headaches, dizziness, dizziness, cancer. Boy. Biden was one of them.”
The bill would add conditions related to burn pit and toxic exposure, including high blood pressure, to the Department of Veterans Affairs for illnesses that occurred or worsened during military service. It could provide coverage for up to 3.5 million toxic-prone veterans.
“I was going to do this come hell or high water,” he said, calling the law “the single most important piece of legislation our country has ever enacted to help the millions of veterans exposed to toxic substances during their military service.”
The president said, “We have many obligations and only one truly sacred obligation: to arm those we send into harm’s way and to care for them and their families when they return home.”
The bill was introduced on Wednesday by Danielle Robinson Biden, wife of Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson, for whom it is named. Her son Brielle Robinson was by her side. Danielle Robinson was a guest of First Lady Jill Biden at Biden’s State of the Union address when she asked Congress to pass the Burn Wells Act.
Interior Secretary Deb Holland, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Veterans Affairs Secretary Dennis McDonough and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mallorca were scheduled to attend the White House presentation of the bill.
The White House touts the legislation, known as the PACT Act, as a more than 30-year expansion of benefits and services for veterans exposed to chronic toxins.
A bipartisan bill passed Congress last week after Republicans who previously supported the measure blocked the bill temporarily as they sought to add cost-cutting reforms to the package. The surprise move by Republicans sparked an immediate backlash among veterans and veterans groups, with advocates of the move protesting the actions at the US Capitol for days. Comedian and political activist Jon Stewart, a leading advocate for veterans, joined the cause.
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